Tuesday, June 26, 2012

There is a troubling and on-going issue with your customer service department. Since I purchased the vehicle, 2 years and 1 day ago, there has been nothing but mounting problems with your customer service department. I have reached my wits end with you people because of the trail of disgust that you all create each and every time I call customer service ("1-800-382-2238").

Yesterday was the day of all days. Again, I had the unfortunate pleasure of speaking with Reps "K", "L", and "J". After wading through streams of auto prompts, I was finally connected to the disgruntle Rep K. I am going to assume that Rep K is fairly new because instead of listening to me, she wanted to over talk me and ONLY restate what she thought was formal policy versus listening to the entire question. I was appalled with how she decided to handle this call. She yelled, became impatient, and was grossly condescending. After what seemed to be an eternity, she put whom I thought was her supervisor on the line, Rep L.

The conversation with Rep L only lasted a few seconds because she began the call with "What is it that you want us to do because I am only going to restate what Rep L said?" Excuse me ma'am but may I at least state the question? No sooner than I attempted, she uttered a scream and slammed the phone down. By this time, I was livid. I scrambled and hunted for the corporate number, which isn't listed anywhere or on anything that I have, so I had no other choice but to call the aforementioned 800 number. This time I reached Mrs. Smooth Talking Rep J. Rep J kept her cool for the most part as she was determined to solve the problem. She absolutely refused to transfer me to the call center manager as I indicated at the beginning of the call. She gave stern proclamation that she was indeed a Sr. Customer Service Rep and could solve anything. I didn't want to speak with her, I wanted to chat with a manager. She refused and her condescending tone ensued. After badgering her for the corporate address, P.O. Box 1027, Alpharetta, GA 30009, she informed me that I needed to follow call center protocol and chain of command. Ma'am I am NOT an employee of Acura, I am an ON TIME PAYING CUSTOMER. She didn't get it. I told her that I would write a letter instead since no one seems to give a complete answer. She then implied that my letter would fall upon deaf ears because Acura routes customer complaint letters to Sr. Customer Service Reps. I informed her that I had spoken with managers on all previous calls but apparently, I did NOT, they were only Sr. Reps posing as managers. This practice needs to be null and voided ASAP.

After hours of arguments with Acura reps, I turned to social media for help. It seems that your social media team is a bit more aligned with the pillars of customer service as they responded to my cries for assistance. However, I was again directed to the aforementioned customer service number. Shortly thereafter, on another social media site, a message came requesting information then a bit before 8 pm, an Acura rep gave me a ring. By then, I was exhausted and couldn't repeat the incident yet again.

So Acura, this letter only highlights the disturbing incidents of one day. There are mountains of incidents that I've had with CUSTOMER SERVICE since June 25, 2010. There is a gap in stellar customer service and the mimicking of service that you provide. As an instructional designer with almost 15 years in education, I can come to any of your call centers and design a solutions-based plan that includes on-going professional development. My skills include but not limited to; developing learning objectives/outcomes, interacting with SMEs, identifying core learning needs, creating visual aids for face-to-face and multimedia, developing assessments, and organizing evaluation data. Your customer service needs a major overhaul and reorganization. This is NOT an isolated incident yet a two year on-going fiasco.

Acura, your cars are stellar but your customer service department earned the biggest F in American history.

4
comments:

Wow. I've driven Acura since I started driving and I've never had an experience like this. Then again, I've never had to call the 800 number either. I will say that I have always felt like the people that work in the service department could benefit from a few customer service classes. Of course the salesmen are always nice, but I've never really had a good experience with the people in the service department. The worst svc. dept. I've dealt with has to be the San Antonio dealership. I would say the best was in Cary, NC. I hope you get a solution to your issue soon. I agree with you, I love their cars but their employees, well, that's another story.

I have a Honda and it's no better. I remember I was 2 weeks late for a car payment one time and the lady said to me " I don't give an eff if you don't have a job I will come and get the car personally if you don't pay your bill. I was like 2 weeks late and this is how customer service treats me and she claimed she was a manager too. I am so glad I will be finished paying them off in September of this year and I will not have to deal with them anymore.